Think of all the rules we follow without knowing it

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I thought I inherently understood how to speak (my native language) English, until I flunked Advanced Grammar. I hate it here.

spanish is way more flexible, but meaning can sometimes change completely if you alter the order, like "Un pobre niño" (an unfortunate child) vs "un niño pobre"(a financially poor child), or "un viejo amigo" (a longtime friend) vs "un amigo viejo" (an elderly friend)

Probably a natural skip for native speakers, but this is standard "lesson" and almost always used in high school tests. There are many acronyms for this: OPSHACOM, OPSHACOMP or DOSA-SCOMP as Khan Academy suggests, (Determiner, Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, and Purpose) Eg "My favorite big old square white French cotton gardening hat"

I teach adjective order in advanced ESL lessons as a fun little exercise; I say we want the most changeable descrptor away from the noun. Like, opinions can vary, and size can change a bit more than color, and material/nationality are more intrinsic, thus closer to the noun.

Thank God I learned this ridiculous language naturally as a child and not in school.

I've always found these strange quirks and rules in english fascinating. I definitely recommend The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson as a great read for deeper insight and examination of them

I went to school in the US for 16+ years was never taught "adjective order"

I tell my students to think "what is closest to the essence of the noun? That stays closest to it." Like, an opinion may vary from person to person, but the color does not. The color can also be changed (paint it), but the material it's made of, not. It works for most adjectives.

We learned French sequence in school: subject ne me le lui y en verb pas pp (past participle). Remember it though haven’t thought of it in decades.